What’s the best way to stay productive when working from home?
Bren Kinfa 💎 SaaS Gems
10 replies
I'm sure many of us have the pleasure of working from home. 🏡
During the pandemic, WFH culture skyrocketed and a lot of people suddenly found themselves joining the boat of remote work.
That being said, what are some effective methods that have worked for you when it comes to working from home?
For me - I like to create a designated work vs. fun space and I try to maintain routines & taking breaks.
How about you? 😊
Replies
Harsh D@harshdoshi999
Three things worked for me while WFH:
- Creating a dedicated workspace
- Minimizing distractions
- Staying connected with colleagues
Share
Having deadlines whether internally set or set by a boss I always found incredibly helpful.
Adding to this, deciding what's a priority and what isn't. Then you get work in a logical order of things.
Working from home on personal projects I've found to be way different. In these scenarios I like to just break tasks down into smaller chunks and have a to-do list created for the week.
@carter_barnett what if you have no desire to work on personal projects? How do you deal with such problem? Do you skip a day or force yourself to do it?
@asaskevich Typically force myself to do it if I know skipping a day will make me more lenient to skip again in the future. If lets say I'm sick and I know no actual productive work will get done, then I'd skip a day.
- Regular breaks with eye- and stretch exercises
- Regular switches into different activities, e.g. play a guitar for a little moment, read a book, walk around the house
- Setup precise timetables for work and family activities
- Teach the team to accept your work schedule
Comment Deleted
Go on a walk, preferably once before you start your day, and at least one other time during the day to disconnect. When working and living in the same space, getting out is crucial.
In fact, I recently saw an article promoting the psychological benefits of a commute to work. The gist of it was that having a commute can help you disconnect or prep your mind for what is ahead, while psychologically providing a breaking point for your mind to separate work and not-work.
You can simulate this quite well with just a 10 minute walk around your home space before working, and then a nice 10 minute walk at the end of the day (or a nice walk and think for lunch)
Give it a shot and let us know how it goes! Some of the greatest thinkers (Einstein, Tesla, etc.) all cited walking as their time to think too, so you are in good company!
- Use apps like Asana, Trello, Google Tasks to plan things to do. Checking stuff off your list feels good.
- Use apps like Forest, Llama Life, etc. to time box tasks
- Use apps like 1Focus on Mac to block out distractions like social media, etc.
- Don't make your whole house into a workspace. Have a dedicated home office. Work when you are in it. Don't work when you're not. Don't mix spaces between work and personal stuff.
- Schedule time for exercise. Can just be a walk outside. Preferably close to water, if you're lucky to live near the sea, lake, or pond.
- Set a specific time for when you're done with work for the day. Train your coworkers to not expect replies after that.
For effective WFH, I have three tips:
1) First is first, know how you spend your time. That is why we have developed FlexyTime ( https://www.flexytime.com/ ). Flexytime is a time tracking tool and it measures your well-being too.
2) To stop distractions, I listen to focus music. Check that on youtube. I leave an example link: https://youtu.be/mg7netw1JuM?t=1
3) It is vital to do some activity, even if it is just walking; it helps a lot.
For me, the most important thing was a separate space. For me, that space was the well-prepared loggia in my apartment.